Richard Avedon, self-portrait, 1980

Today I went to see the Richard Avedon retrospective “Photographs 1946-2004″ at Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin.
More than 200 of his pictures and two documentary films are shown.

You can find interesting short background descriptions of several personalities.

He was the first photographer who left the studio to bring fashion into a daily context. Against my expectation it is not his work for Harpers Bazaar and Vogue that most impressed me, but three other series:

“In the American West” shows mostly (migratory) workers in the United States in the late 70ies and early 80ies. The tanned, rugged faces almost have no emotional expression; some seem to have transparent eyes and an endless view. A few have a great and funny styling.

“Jacob Israel Avedon” is pictures he took of his father in the last seven years before his father’s death.
Even there are only 6 pictures in the gallery; they are so personal that when I think of them I still get into a sadly affected mood.

“The Brandenburg Gate” was shot during the new years evening party happening there in 1989, the first one after the fall of the Berlin wall.
He described the atmosphere as frightening and kind of aggressive. Maybe the impact on me is caused by my own memories of those days, it would be interesting to talk with non-Berliners about that.

The exhibition is still on until January 19th of 2009 and I highly recommend it, the 8 € for entrance are really worth it.